Philippine lawmakers passed a resolution yesterday to rewrite the Constitution, a move critics said was aimed at giving outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo another term in power.
However, it still needs the approval of the Senate, which is dominated by her opponents.
The resolution cleared the first hurdle after it was passed by the House of Representatives, which is full of Arroyo allies, following a marathon session late on Tuesday.
PHOTO: EPA
The Constitution, written in 1987, limits presidents to one six-year term in office.
“It’s impossible for them to do it without the Senate,” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said, labeling the measure an “exercise in futility.”
The Philippines is due to hold a presidential election next May to choose a successor to Arroyo.
Arroyo allies have been pressing to rewrite the Constitution for months — purportedly to make the economy more competitive by easing rules on foreign ownership in certain sectors.
But critics charge it is a ploy to extend Arroyo’s stay in office.
The influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) joined the attacks on the move.
“It’s like they are betraying the people. When power corrupts, it corrupts absolutely,” said Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the CBCP.
About 200 activists staged a rally at the House of Representatives to protest the efforts to rewrite the Constitution.
Meanwhile, a junior government minister was fighting for his life in a hospital after being ambushed by a gunman on a busy street in Manila yesterday, police said.
He was the third central government official to have been gunned down in as many months.
Elmer Soneja, an assistant secretary at the Department of Transportation and Communications, was shot in the district of Pasig, police said.
He was rushed to hospital where police said he was fighting for his life.
Radio reports quoted witnesses as saying the gunman quickly fled after the shooting. Police said a manhunt was under way.
In April, agriculture department director Gomersindo Lasama was killed in an ambush in the northern Philippines.
Public works undersecretary Ramon Aquino died in March from gun shot wounds after he was ambushed on a busy Manila street while traveling to meet Arroyo.
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